Well, I wanted to improve my car's handling but didn't want to shell out big bucks, so I built myself a rear upper strut bar. I bought an L-shaped piece of cross-drilled steel from Home Depot, cut it down to size, and slid it over the strut bolts in the trunk.
You'll need the 60" version of the metal from Home Depot; my bolts were 48" apart, and the maximum width in the trunk was 52" - this was a 98 Cavalier two-door. Cut the bar down to whatever length you measured and bend up the ends - it helps the bar sit lower in the trunk, as you'll see in the pictures.
I spraypainted my bar with Krylon X-Metal Red, which is designed to "anodize" metals. So far it's had two coats and it looks pretty good. I might spray some more coats on later in the week.
To mount it, I slid a washer over the strut bolt, put the strut bar on, then found a nut that fit and tightened. Does it work? Well, it's not a night-and-day difference, but in some twisty corners I did feel like the rear end stayed better planted and didn't wiggle around as much. Overall the car feels a lot tighter in the turns with the bar installed.
60" L-shaped steel : $12 from Home Depot
Krylon X-Metal spraypaint: $5 from Meijer
Total: $17, significantly less than a professional bar.
Questions/comments/criticisms welcome.
The amount of stress your placing on 1 bolt on each side is a bad thing, its either gonna break, or permently warp. Nice try though.
What will warp and break? The bar or the bolts?
I was happy when I heard my car ran 10s. Then I found out that was 0-60.
i think was talking about the bolt, the strut tower bar helps with flex in corners and twisting during acceleration and breaking, if u put it on one bolt it is going to over stress that one bolt, the bolt becomes the weak link instead of the lack of a bar, the bolt will flex instead of the towers
Most likey the bolt and the thin piece of metal.
I used 10 gauge steel when i made my subframe brace, personaly i would either have gotten the front and rear for the $100 and have then work perfectly, or just got a 1" x 0.5" Square Steel tubing and used that.
I just made up a front strut bar with 1/2" square as that is what I had to work with at the time and it doesn't flex much so I may leave it or maybe go up to 3/4" square tubing.
You guys arent getting a simple concept.
It order for it to work Safely and correctly, you need both front and rear bars to be connected by 2 or more bolts/nuts. Placing a bar across 1 bolt on each side, is way to much stress for that bolt to handle for long period of time, it gonna break eventually, and doing so is gonna cause other problems esp while driving.
ALSO a 3/4 square tube might me too big to even close the hood. I suggest you measure that clearance first.
If you want to make a subframe brace, then by all means use 3/4" to 1" square tubing, but you should have it bolted with 2 bolts on each side, not one.
El Fuego ( the grounded one ) wrote:You guys arent getting a simple concept.
It order for it to work Safely and correctly, you need both front and rear bars to be connected by 2 or more bolts/nuts. Placing a bar across 1 bolt on each side, is way to much stress for that bolt to handle for long period of time, it gonna break eventually, and doing so is gonna cause other problems esp while driving.
ALSO a 3/4 square tube might me too big to even close the hood. I suggest you measure that clearance first.
If you want to make a subframe brace, then by all means use 3/4" to 1" square tubing, but you should have it bolted with 2 bolts on each side, not one.
hes right. i know alot about screws and fasteners. putting 1 on each side is putting alot of stress on each. if you were to put 2 on each side it would take the stress off greatly.
btw you can get strut bars for like 30 bucks
Yeah the one I made does use two bolts per side. I wouldn't trust just one bolt either.
OK, I'm not trying to defend myself here, yeah, you're right it's not perfect, but I was off school bored and made it for $17 rather than $20+shipping off eBay. The whole time I had actually been planning to attach it to two bolts but didn't have the time when I first built it, so in a week or so it'll be attached to two bolts each side. For now, it's not screwed in very tight and the left bolt has a little bit of free play so it can wiggle a tiny bit - yes, this destroys the purpose, but prevents it destroying my car.
Come on guys, at least i tried.
I was happy when I heard my car ran 10s. Then I found out that was 0-60.
